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Media Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130
Sometimes, it’s the little things that can stand in the way of a student truly fulfilling their career dreams.
California State University, Northridge finance professors Hsin-Hui Chiu and Jodi Letkiewicz have formed a partnership with Schwab Advisor Services and the Charles Schwab Foundation to remove some of those barriers — whether its $100 to take a professional credential exam, a two-hour commute to a critical professional review program or a lack of opportunities to spend quality networking time with finance professionals.
“We talked to so many students in the financial planning program to find out why they aren’t taking certain professional exams or applying to get certain professional credentials,” said Letkiewicz, who teaches in the Department Finance, Financial Planning, and Insurance in CSUN’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. “And what we found is that it was what some of us might call ‘little things’ that provided barriers to their career goals.
“While the cost to take one exam of about $100 might not seem like a lot to some people, it can be out of reach for some of our students who are already working one or two jobs just to make ends meet and pay for their schooling,” she said. “If you want to take more than one exam — the fee for one professional credential exam is $1,000 — that can add up to becoming prohibitive. And if the closest place to take an in-person, multi-day review for some of these critical exams is in Irvine, that’s another barrier that can make a difference in a student achieving their career goals.”
The partnership with Schwab Advisor Services and the Charles Schwab Foundation will provide finance students opportunities while lower-division undergraduates to prepare for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam, the first step toward getting a license to become a securities industry professional, and the Series 65 exam, which qualifies individuals to become investment adviser representatives who can legally provide financial advice for a fee.
The partnership also provides scholarships or stipends to cover the costs of study materials, exam fees or prep courses to remove financial barriers and incentivize early exam attempts. It will support industry engagement events such as registered investment advisor (RIA) roundtables, alumni networking sessions and workshops on becoming a certified financial planner (CFP).
“If we can increase the opportunities for our students to engage with financial professionals earlier in their academic careers, the earlier they understand what it takes to become a professional financial planner,” Letkiewicz said. “It also means that it provides opportunities for those us in the department to find ways to get potential barriers out of their way on their path toward career success.”
Among those barriers has been the review program for the CFP exam. The closest such review program is currently offered at the University California, Irvine.
“That’s too far away for some of our students,” Letkiewicz said. “Some of our students rely on public transportation to get to campus. Getting to a multi-day prep course in Irvine would be a nightmare for them.”
Letkiewicz said she and Chiu are working with the Schwab Foundation to host a similar prep CFP program on CSUN’s campus.
“The students in our program, when they graduate, go out and do lots of different things,” Letkiewicz said. “But most of them want to serve their community. They want to help people manage their money, meet their financial goals. Some people want to do investments. Some want to work in wealth management. Some people just want to be financial coaches and work with people who need every day financial advice.
“Our students want to make a difference in people’s lives, and this partnership will help us remove some of the barriers that are keeping them from fulfilling that dream,” she said.
